Health

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the You Are What You Eat file comes a New York State first: a hospital-based initiative designed to comprehensively address hunger-related issues. The New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health system and Bethpage-based Island Harvest Food Bank have announced the launch of Food as Health, a unique effort to address “the full range of factors that can lead to food insecurity,” according to Northwell Health, including poverty, lack of nutritional awareness, difficulty…

By GREGORY ZELLER // A private grant from a national support network will help Stony Brook University researchers explore a new therapeutic target in the war against pancreatic cancer. The California-based Pancreatic Cancer Action Network – a registered 501(c)3 organization with offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington – has awarded a $500,000 grant to Stony Brook Medicine Pathology Chairman Kenneth Shroyer and Assistant Professor Luisa Escobar-Hoyos. Shroyer, who is also Stony Brook…

By GREGORY ZELLER // The National Institutes of Health is backing a Long Island-based researcher’s efforts to develop a first-of-its-kind care program for post-surgical bladder cancer patients. Michael Diefenbach, a fellow of both the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and a professor at Northwell Health’s Manhasset-based Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, has earned a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the NIH’s National Cancer Institute. The funds will be used…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Hofstra University athletes will now receive primary medical care directly from New York State’s largest healthcare provider. The Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute – part of New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, the state’s largest healthcare provider by number of practitioners and number of patients – will “coordinate and provide primary care” for Hofstra’s men’s and women’s teams, Northwell Health announced this week. The university’s 300-plus student-athletes, who compete annually in 17 different…

By GREGORY ZELLER // The nation’s oldest and largest healthcare accrediting body has bestowed a rare designation upon Stony Brook University Hospital. The hospital announced this week that it has earned Comprehensive Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission, making it the first Suffolk County hospital and one of only 200 national hospitals – out of more than 5,800 eligible institutions – to earn the distinction. The elite Comprehensive Stroke Center designation indicates the hospital’s…

By GREGORY ZELLER // The latest precision instrument for targeting brain tumors – and only brain tumors – has come to Long Island. But the precision delivery of radiological treatments directly to malignant tissue is not the big breakthrough here – or perhaps even the most appealing upgrade for patients. Northwell Health’s Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Radiation Medicine have both installed cutting-edge stereotactic radiosurgery systems known as Gamma Knife Icon – another cutting-edge…

By GREGORY ZELLER // At its 58th commence exercises on May 18, counting bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, Stony Brook University conferred 7,185 total diplomas upon happy graduates – a school record, a Long Island-based-graduating-class record and a proud achievement indeed. And then there were two, at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. That’s the size of the 2018 graduating class of the Feinstein Institute’s Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine, which on May 24…

Stony Brook Community Medical has brought a new pulmonary practice into the fold. The burgeoning, highly coordinated healthcare network based around the Stony Brook School of Medicine has welcomed New York Pulmonary Consultants into its expanding family of community-based practices and physicians. New York Pulmonary Consultants offers comprehensive and integrated pulmonary care at offices in Port Jefferson and Riverhead, with “other satellite offices to be announced soon,” according to a statement from Stony Brook Medicine….

By GREGORY ZELLER // The National Association of Epilepsy Centers has re-upped five Northwell Health epilepsy programs, including three on Long Island. The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Manhasset’s North Shore University Hospital, the Pediatric Epilepsy Center at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, located in Manhattan, have all earned NAEC Level 4 reaccreditation. That designation means each center provides complex neuro-diagnostic monitoring, complete evaluations…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Expectant South Shore mothers enduring high-risk pregnancies have a new resource. South Nassau Communities Hospital has opened a new Center for Maternal Fetal Medicine adjacent to its Oceanside campus, self-billed as “the only dedicated center of its kind for high-risk pregnancies on the South Shore of Nassau County.” Staffed by obstetricians and “maternal fetal medicine sub-specialists,” the $3 million center is stocked with advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies designed specifically for the…

By GREGORY ZELLER // One of Long Island’s busiest emergency rooms is getting a serious upgrade. Long Island Jewish Medical Center at Valley Stream, part of the Northwell Health system, announced Friday that it will begin a $22.3 million renovation of its emergency department this month. The 9,000-square-foot department, which currently treats about 40,000 patients annually, will be expanded to 12,000 square feet with the capacity to handle some 55,000 annual patients, according to New…

The American Diabetes Association has tapped Stony Brook Medicine’s top diabetes doctor to head up its regional leadership board. Joshua Miller, the Stony Brook University School of Medicine’s medical director of diabetes care and an assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism in the school’s Department of Medicine, has been named president of the ADA’s Long Island Community Leadership Board. Miller will be responsible for oversight of the association’s patient- and clinical-support programs in Nassau and…

By GREGORY ZELLER // New American Heart Association guidelines redefining “high blood pressure” are harming some patients, according to a Feinstein Institute researcher and other scientists. Findings published online Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology challenge new, stricter guidelines issued in November 2017 by the AHA, the American College of Cardiology and nine other professional health organizations. Those guidelines – written by a panel of 21 scientists and health experts who…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Marking another first for Northwell Health, state health officials have greenlighted Long Island’s first liver-transplant program. The New Hyde Park-based health system announced Tuesday that the New York State Department of Health has granted “contingent approval” to North Shore University Hospital’s request to establish an adult liver-transplant program. Specifically, the Health Department’s Public Health and Health Planning Council has sanctioned the application of NSUH’s Adult Liver Transplant Service and forwarded its…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Good news for regional patients facing the unfortunate reality of cardiac surgery: Some of the best outcomes in New York State for certain types of open-heart surgeries are happening on Long Island. That’s according to the NYS Department of Health, which for the seventh consecutive reporting period has ranked New Hyde Park’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center among the best cardiac-surgery hospitals in the state – top of the list, in…